[Another blog for the great roaring void that is IOPS and its four or five readers. This is a response to an email I got the other day about Trump from a friend of mine who is, or was, a progressive, now retired academic specializing in public…

Towards Police State Australia in the Post-Liberal Era At least since 9/11 almost all western countries have been involved in a gradual slide to post-liberal, more authoritarian states. Some are gradually becoming outright police states. Australia…

[Trying a bigger pic here. Anyone into the Anthropocene? ] Ten Propositions on the Anthropocene Choice for Humanity 1.We are now in the ANTHROPOCENE: a new evolutionary phase of the planet since about 1950 defined primarily by one species,…

[First blog attempt below did not print the rest, so here its is] Some brief suggestions about how to deal with core feelings and ideas motivating right-wing populism without helping push them towards outright fascism: 1.Feelings: grievance,…

First some quotes from two recent articles in the Sydney Morning Herald (my highlighting): From Jacqueline Maley (‘Climate courage bleached by outbreaks of populism’, SMH 10-11/12/2016, p. 31): Research by Roberto Foa and Yascha…

Castro & the Police State Left Fidel Castro has died. His enemies and his sympathizers are framing their predictable responses. I am addressing the latter. I have read many glowing eulogies from the Left in the last few days, some hagiographic,…

Interesting take on the Trump election by the indefatigable Ken Knabb of the Bureau of Public Secrets, a site focussed on making available in English all the texts of the French situationists and a lot of US poet Ken Rexroth as well. I heartily…

[An attempt to clarify some very general aspects, psycho-social contexts and motifs of right-wing populism as it has manifested across the advanced industrialised world for several decades starting with the end of the post-war boom in the mid-70s…

Marina Sitrin: Lessons from Paris Z Communications Daily Commentary “To celebrate and imagine together”“To look at each other and smile”“No parties, no barriers, no labels”“Take Squares and rediscover…

INTERNATIONAL CALL BY #NUITDEBOUT WE CALL FOR A #GLOBALDEBOUT DAY OF ACTION ON THE 15 OF MAY, 2016 We call on peoples movements across the world to mobilise for justice and real democracy on the 15 of May, 2016 for a #GLOBALDEBOUT. We invite…

[One for the five readers in the IOPS necropolis. Salud. Peter] THE UnFUTURIST MANIFESTO With face smeared in toxic gunk from the cars and factories, bruised, souls wrecked and decimated by wage labour, powerlessness and the total commodification…

(Just to keep all five IOPS blog readers up tp speed, with a bit of anarchic political philosophy thrown in. Just my own views. Not applicable to the IOPS website. The first paragraph is still my view of the question which IOPS should be mainly…

Just an idea for a new global dialogue/transformation website, separate from IOPS but perhaps in its essential spirit (?) There are now first steps being undertaken in this direction. To me personally IOPS itself is not important, the urgent…

Peter Lach-Newinsky Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect – Getting beyond the IOPS Impasse IOPS is at an impasse. But as the old adage has it, crisis is also another word for opportunity. Can IOPS manage to grasp this…

Just a couple of thoughts to throw into the IOPS re-evaluation mix after the predictable failure of the 12 June deadline. I think we need to move beyond just asking ourselves very restricted organizational questions as those in the latest poll,…

Here are some extracts from a piece by Chris Hedges on Chomsky which might be interesting for IOPS members in terms of thinking about priorities, issues, propaganda, strategies etc. On the absolute urgency of climate chaos as an issue: Climate…

Just a few very general theses, an extended improvisation perhaps around the core IOPS values of solidarity/mutual aid and self-management/participatory democracy. A BIT OF POLITICS: 13 Theses on the Good Society One’s regret is…

Some thoughts on the dangers of progressive intellectuals sometimes over-emphasizing the intellectual argument and denigrating the 'irrational'. Fits in with some IOPS discussions around the importance of our symbols, logos, music, creativity,…

[I'll park this here and in Resources for what it's worth. Not necessarily comprehensive, but a start. Am working on a few more quotes in the endnotes, but don't want it to get too extensive either... Perhaps a lot of activists may be a little…

I've got a fatal weakness for manifestos. So here's another one. Have fun, Peter Lach-Newinsky AS WE SEE IT 2.0 (Note: this manifesto has used passages from, and been inspired by, Maurice Brinton's, aka Chris Pallis', 'As We See…

[Intro. This is probably pissing against the wind, and of little relevance to most at this early stage, maybe at any stage. Just some stuff from my particular perspective and background as a ‘68er’ that might be of interest to the…

Workers at the Vio.Me factory (construction materials) in Thessaloniki in Greece have taken over the factory and started their first production-run under self-management on the 12th. This is "the first experiment in industrial self-management…

Human Survival and IOPS Must admit I’ve got a little problem with IOPS at the moment. The way it’s going. Missing something. Like the end of the world, and I don’t mean the Mayan bullshit. I mean survival. The mounting…

Peter Lach-Newinsky [There have been some Forum conversations around the core IOPS statements. Some have argued for trying to make them easier to understand, more generally accessible, or more welcoming, or more exciting and attractive. Others…

[Sorry for double post, but it's a bit long because lineated like a poem, so have used smaller font to compress...This just reads on from where last post ended. Hate to hog space, but...] Liberty, Equality and Fraternity have now been extended…

[Something between poetry and prose, a 'proem' perhaps. Cutting and pasting has done a few weird things to the spacing... but hope you can still enjoy. About vision, strategy, tactics...] A GULP (!) OF UTOPIA A map that does not contain…

The interim IOPS Vision seeks the facilitating of the 'ecologically sound reconstruction of society'. E.A.R.T.H. is an international affinity group, open discussion forum and resource library focussed…

The aim of this project is to prepare one or more proposals for changes to IOPS that can be voted on by the membership against the alternative, default proposal to disband. When these proposals are sufficiently…